Don’t forget your belching cow tax on April 15th

Please to God someone tell me this is an early April Fool’s joke because if it isn’t then the EPA has just jumped the shark – or would that be the cow. According to a report on the WSAZ TV site the EPA saying that farmers with belching cows or pigs should have to pay a tax because farm animal gases are bad for the environment.

As farmer Jack Crank said in an interview about the tax

“I think the government has more problems than belching cows,” said Mason County cattle farmer Jack Crank.

He said he’s bewildered by a proposal to tax livestock farms where the animals emit massive amounts of greenhouse gases.

In New York, the EPA wants to levy a tax. Here’s the breakdown: the tax for dairy cows could be $175 per cow, $87.50 for beef cattle, and the tax per hog would be $20.

Any operation with more than 25 dairy cows, 50 beef cattle or 200 hogs would have to obtain permits.

“With the high price of hay, soon families won’t be able to put food on the table,” Crank said.

The proposal in New York state is said to potentially cost farmers more than $110 million a year, which farmers say would have a huge impact on the rural economy and could force countless family farms out of business.

Source: WSAZ TV

Yes folks this is your government as work – handing out billions to Wall Street fat cats and then trying to think of ways to gouge the work person – way to go ya idjjiots.

[hat tip to Internet Strategist on Friendfeed]